How important is one vote? If one is to believe a quick Internet search:

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected president by one vote in the House of Representatives after a tie in the Electoral College.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won the presidential popular vote but lost by one vote in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams after an Electoral College dead-locked.

In 1846, President Polk’s request for a Declaration of War against Mexico passed by one vote.

In 1876, Samuel Tilden won the presidential popular vote but came up one electoral vote shy and lost to Rutherford B. Hayes.

In 1941, Congress amended the active-service component of the Selective Service Act from one year to two-and-a-half years by a vote of 203 to 202.

In 1962, governors of Maine, Rhode Island and North Dakota were elected by an average of one vote per precinct.

While one vote may rarely decide an election, it is an undeniable fact that many elections have been decided by only a few votes.

It’s also evident that vote fraud does occur; therefore, it is critical that all votes cast are cast by citizens that are legally entitled to vote. An illegally cast vote negates a legally cast vote.

How important is a legally cast vote? Apparently it’s extremely important. Voting districts have been gerrymandered to favor one political party or the other, groups have been observed intimidating potential voters, voter fraud has been documented and the issue is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The federal standard for verifying that an individual is lawfully entitled to vote is grossly inadequate in that the person need only sign a statement that indicates that he or she is a citizen and is entitled to vote. That is like asking a convicted criminal, “Did you commit the crime?”

Now, I’m no rocket scientist but I do agree with Arizona State Attorney General Thomas C. Horne. In a recent Associated Press article headlined, “Court to hear voter ID case,” Horne said, “The fallacy in that (the so-called honor process noted above) is that someone who is willing to vote illegally will also be willing to sign a false statement. What (opponents) are urging is that there should be nothing more than an honor system to assure that registered voters are citizens. That was not acceptable to the people of Arizona.”

I will go one step further than Attorney General Horne: Anyone who is willing to enter this country illegally is more likely than not to be willing to cast an illegal vote if that vote is beneficial to their objective.

In fact, I’m confident that the Democratic Party’s leadership is counting on illegal voting to occur as it’s the Democratic Party that has the most to gain from such activity.